Big Sky singles out Stuckey for fourth time

It isn’t big news anymore when Eastern Washington freshman phenom Rodney Stuckey has a weekend with 55 points, 13 rebounds, eight assists, three blocked shots and two steals.

More impressive is that the Eagles got contributions across the board in a pair 12-point Big Sky Conference wins against first-division teams at Reece Court. That included ending the longest winning streak in Division I with a 73-61 win over league-leading Northern Arizona.

Stuckey was rewarded with his fourth player of the week award, but EWU coach Mike Burns saw the award for what it truly means.

“When you win an award like that during the conference season, it usually means your team has won both games and the player has played very well in winning those games,” Burns said. “So I almost look at the player of the week award as a team award when it is handed out during the conference season.”

Four players scored in double figures in each game, three getting season highs, and in each game at least four players had five rebounds. The Eagles had 35 assists on 52 baskets and blocked 16 shots in the two games.

Stuckey’s weekly honor, which comes just 22 games and 12 weeks into his career, equals the EWU career record set by Alvin Snow from 2001-04.

With six regular-season games to go, including Saturday’s 7 p.m. home game against Portland State, Stuckey is averaging 24 points a game and is 99 points from tying David Peed’s single-season record of 626 points (1989).

Peed averaged a school-record 20.9 points in 30 games for Bob Hoffman’s 8-22 team and was playing alongside Ronn McMahon, one of the best point guards in EWU history. That year McMahon had 207 assists, 6.9 per game, both No. 3 on the Eagles’ single-season list.

Stuckey is playing the point, a position he didn’t play in high school. He has 89 assists in 22 games, which is among the conference leaders. He is also shooting a respectable .481 from the field, just a hair better than Peed did in 1988-89.

Stuckey is closing in on two more records. He has made 136 free throws, nine short of tying Matt Piper’s school record (1983), in 175 attempts, 15 shy of Dick Koford’s school record (1960). His 52 steals tie him for 10th on EWU’s single-season list.